This course will examine the music industry in the United States, with the unique perspective gained by Vanderbilt University’s location in Nashville, TN. Nashville is a major center of music in the United States, and the music created here has a global reach, particularly in the country, rock, pop, singer-songwriter, and Americana genres. However, students will learn that the basic principles of recording, marketing, copyright, licensing, and live performance are the same, regardless of musical style or genre.
The music business is one of the most rapidly changing industries in the US today. It is also an industry filled with contradiction, and media headlines and anecdotal stories often add to the confusion. Here are just a few statements paraphrased from recent news stories:
* The music business has collapsed
* Demand for music is expanding at the greatest rate in history
* Historic recording studios are closing at an alarming rate
* More people are making recordings than ever before
* Musicians usually lose money touring
* Musicians usually make money touring
* Major artist pulls songs off streaming services because they don’t pay fairly
* Major artist makes a fortune from streaming services
* People won’t buy records anymore
* Vinyl record sales are soaring
This course will attempt to make sense of these seemingly contradictory trends and data, outline the basic structure and mechanisms of today’s music industry, and encourage students to think critically and entrepreneurially about the future of music. Leaders from various areas of the music business will lend their perspectives through in-depth interviews, and footage from a recording session will give learners a behind the scenes look at how a song goes from the spark of an idea hummed into a cell phone to a finished recording.
Participants will grapple with questions about art and commerce which are both timeless and crucially important today, and will emerge from this course with tools allowing them to make more informed decisions as creators, promoters, and consumers of music.
Course launches February 19, 2016.

Reviews

GG

Loved it.\n\nIt gave me insight to how thing work in this business.\n\nGreat Job.

XM

Dec 13, 2016

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star

it's great, all vivid content and clear explanations.

From the lesson

Live Performance

Live performance has become a crucial component of many musicians’ careers in an era when many traditional income streams for musicians are shrinking. This module will take a look at the team of people who work with an artist doing strategy and planning (i.e., managers and agents) and people who travel with the artist on the road. You will also consider live music from the point of view of venue owners, concert promoters, and talent buyers, and interviews with a road manager and a club owner will guide your perspective about the current world of live music. What is a concert ticket worth?

Taught By

Jen Gunderman

Transcript

[MUSIC] I wanted to say a word about side musicians. Sometimes musicians who are traveling together are bands who have a collective agreement to share in profit or debt, and have all of their fortunes either rise or fall with how well the tour is going. But a lot of people who are on the road are hired side musicians who receive a salary from the main artist regardless of the profitability of the tour. This most often happens when an artist is a solo act and needs a band to back them up, but it also sometimes happens within bands, particularly ones that have been around for a while. For example, a band may have begun as a sort of a collective agreement, and then if the guitar player quits and they hire somebody new to come in, that new guy might be on salary and not actually have a stake in the business of the band itself. It's not always easy to tell who's a band member and who's not, by the way. They may be in the photographs and this and that, but there are complicated legal arrangements that are made, particularly when a lot of money is at stake. [MUSIC] [APPLAUSE]

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